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Hot Pot

A baked lamb and kidney dish with potatoes, onions, and optional oysters, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hot Pot

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dish

  1. Trim the lamb chops, removing excess fat.

  2. Butter a deep dish and layer half of the chops in it.

  3. Slice the kidney and add it to the dish with the chops.

  4. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and minced onions.

  5. Layer with sliced potatoes and add small lumps of dripping.

  6. Repeat layers until the dish is nearly full.

  7. Cover the top with whole potatoes.

  8. Pour water or stock over the dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for three hours or more.

  2. If using oysters, place them on the meat and pour a little liquor over before baking.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Lamb + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together520 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lamb chops
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow cooking.
Potatoes
Form layers that absorb cooking juices and help thicken the dish as they soften.
Dripping
Adds fat that enriches flavour and helps the top and meat brown during baking.
Water or stock
Provides moisture so the dish cooks gently and forms a savoury liquid.

The step that matters

Bake long enough at a moderate heat. Lamb and kidney need prolonged, gentle heat to become tender. Baking too briefly or too hot can leave the meat tough while the potatoes scorch or dry out.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pepper, potato, oyster):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, potato, oyster. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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